As a result of achieving
controlled hovering flight with its
prototype Nano Air Vehicle (NAV)
late last year, AeroVironment, Inc.
( www.avinc.com), has now been
awarded phase II funding ($2.1
million) from the Defense Advanced
Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for
continuing development. The goal is
to come up with a little wing flapper
that (1) weighs about 10 g; ( 2) can
hover for extended periods; ( 3) zips
along at up to 10 m/s ( 22 mph); ( 4)
can withstand wind gusts of up to
2. 5 m/s; ( 5) can operate inside
buildings; and ( 6) can communicate
with command and control from up
to 1 km. The “Mercury” phase I unit
didn’t clear all of those hurdles, but it
“accomplished a technical milestone
never before achieved: the controlled
hovering flight of an air vehicle
system with two flapping wings that
carries its own energy source and
uses only the flapping wings for
propulsion and control.”

Phase II will “focus on optimizing
the aircraft for longer flight endurance,
establishing the transition capability
from hover to forward flight and
back, and reducing its size, weight,
and acoustic signature.” The contract
continues through the summer
of 2010.

Bot Conducts Motorcycle
Tests

“Flossie,” Castrol’s robotic
motorcyclist.

If you want to conduct some
grueling motor oil tests using a
high-performance motorcycle, it’s
important to put it through the
routine with perfect repeatability and
reliability. That, of course, is pretty
much impossible with a human rider,
especially one who has ingested a
case of beer and emerged a little
banged up from a bar brawl. So,
Castrol came up with Flossie the
robotic biker to ride the hog.

According to Jo Simpson, a
“lubricant development technologist”
at Castrol, Flossie — being capable of
making exactly the same gear change
or the same acceleration time after
time — is highly valuable in tests to
verify product benefits such as
increased power and acceleration. “It
is equipped with a self-learning mode
to enable it to know the gear change
pattern, clutch feel, and throttle
response of the bike — just like any
rider would on their first outing on
a new machine.”

But don’t expect to see
Flossie show up at Daytona to
flash her hydraulic cylinders at you.
Unfortunately, she rides only while
strapped firmly to a dynamometer.
(But she really likes it that way.)
To see her in action, visit www.
castrolmoto.com.

Meanwhile, up on the Red
Planet, rover “Opportunity” recently
stumbled upon a watermelon-size
rock that turned out to be an iron-nickel meteorite. Dubbed “Block
Island” (possibly but not explicitly
because it’s shaped a bit like the
island resort off the coast of Rhode
Island), it is the largest known
meteorite on the planet. The
interesting thing about it is that it is
too large to have hit the ground
without disintegrating unless Mars
had a much denser atmosphere at
the time of its arrival. According to
rover team member Matt Golombek,
“Either Mars has hidden reserves of
carbon-dioxide ice that can supply
large amounts of carbon-dioxide gas
into the atmosphere during warm periods of more recent climate cycles, or
Block Island fell billions of years ago.”

Next on tap for Opportunity is a
trek to the Endeavor Crater several
miles away. Amazingly, the bot and
its twin, Spirit, landed in January
2004 and were expected to remain
on duty for only three months. Eat
your heart out, Energizer bunny. To
keep up with their activities, visit
marsrovers.nasa.gov.